Daughter of a Dead Woman
by Avery Taylor
Summary: The young princess did not move a muscle in fear of damaging the fragile bundle. But this bundle—she trusted Leia instantly, settling in the makeshift cradle of the seven-year-old's lap and looking contentedly up into her identical brown eyes. And suddenly—in that moment—all Leia wanted to do for the rest of her life was to earn that trust. (complete rewrite of the original)
1. Prologue

_To The Reader:_

_This marks the beginning of Daughter of a Dead Woman - Extended Edition. _

_If you have not read my original Daughter of a Dead Woman, I won't spoil anything but if you have you should know that this story's only connection to the former version is that the characters are the same. What we have here is a complete rewrite. __I ask that if you have read the original Daughter of a Dead Woman, please do not spoil anything in reviews. You might not even be right anymore - a lot has changed._

_I have an acting background and, since I enjoy is so much, I will be providing dramatic readings of this FanFiction on my YouTube channel that I made specifically for this purpose. The channel is "Tess Naberrie" which you can find just by typing that name into the YouTube search bar. I will provide links to the videos at the start of the chapter if an audio reading is available._

_Comments are appreciated, and fuel my inspiration!_

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

A simple piece of japor wood, carved into an hourglass shape and strung onto a leather cord. A trinket of some sentimental value, no doubt, though somewhat out of place in the hands of Naboo royalty. Were the etched black symbols a name? A phrase? No one seemed to know where it came from, only that it had been dear to her for over a decade.

The cerulean waters of Naboo darkened in mourning of the queen and senator. The entire planet seemed to dim for her funeral procession. Men, women, and children alike shed tears for the beloved leader, even though the majority had never seen her in person until her lifeless form was brought through the streets.

Everyone grieved her.

With that in mind, the crime was baffling. Who, in their right mind, would have the audacity to steal the dead body of Padmé Naberrie?

The event took over the HoloNet. Images of the woman who was just as beautiful as she was kind, with reporters narrating their thoughts on the matter. Some assumed it was a ruse to bring people to oppose the Empire somehow. Maybe she wasn't even dead—rather, in hiding with the child she was pregnant with at the time of her supposed death. Throughout her life, Naberrie had survived several assassination attempts. Perhaps there was a "dead or alive" bounty on her head, and someone came to collect.

No one reached a sure conclusion—at least not one that was released to the public.

And the disappearance of Padmé Naberrie remained a mystery.


	2. The Guardians

_**Daughter of a Dead Woman**_

_**Book I: Guardians of the Mystery**_

* * *

><p><strong>Alderaan<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>I<strong>

**19 BBY**

His eyelids growing heavy, Bail Organa watched his three-week-old daughter sleep on his chest. Little Leia's sparse dark hair stuck straight up, and her head tilted upwards towards his face. She had fallen asleep looking at him, crinkling her little eyebrows in deep thought, making the diamond-shaped baby rash on her forehead contort into various shapes.

Bail's wife Breha nestled against his shoulder with a contented sigh.

"Am I crazy…or does she look like you a little?"

Bail playfully mimicked Leia's face, eyes pinched shut and mouth hanging open. The Queen giggled.

"Oh, we need another one," she sighed. Bail tensed a moment, and his wife noticed. "Breathe, my love. Not now. Someday."

Now, that sounded better. Bail smiled, imagining Leia at age eight or nine, peeking into a crib and grasping the finger of a little brother or sister.

Then he remembered who Leia really was. What had happened to her birth mother. The pulsing threat that he could still feel looming over them. Would another child be safe? Could he afford the balance of protection he would have to devote to each one, or would he spend their childhood expecting danger around every corner? What kind of father would he be if the latter were the case?

"Another little princess…" Breha said, a mixture of warmth and longing in her voice as she reached for Leia's tiny hand. "I've always saw myself with two girls."

Before bringing Leia into their home, Bail would have imagined himself with a son. He grew up with so many sisters; he had always felt like he was drowning in estrogen growing up.

But being a brother was not like being a father. Bail looked into Leia's eyes and from the moment he first held her, he knew that this little girl had his heart. He had never experienced a love like the kind he felt for the newborn baby on his chest. She was his princess and his world.

Suddenly, another little princess didn't sound so bad.

"Tess…" Breha whispered with a smile.

"Hm?"

"Her name," the queen clarified. "Do you like it?"

"Well, you've sure got this all planned," Bail chuckled.

"Just being prepared—this one probably won't come with a name."

"It suits her, though, doesn't it?"

"Oh, yes. She's a little Leia for sure."

_Tess…_ Bail thought. He kind of liked it. Not quite as much as Leia, but he liked it.

**II **

**16 BBY**

"Where's Mama?" asked the toddler on Bail's knee, pointing to the picture of Breha on his desk. It was at least the fifth time she had asked today, and they had not even had breakfast.

"She's not here, Lelila," the man sighed. She wasn't—and she hadn't been for almost a week now. After months in the hospital, dozens of medical droids and humanoids alike, so much wishing and praying to the Force and the gods and anything Bail could think of with the power to save his wife—she was gone.

Leia's third birthday had fallen the day after Breha's death. A party was planned at the castle months in advance for her, but when the Queen fell ill, it all just slipped from everyone's mind. Leia was three years old—she didn't notice. But Bail did. And along with the overwhelming guilt that there was something he could have done for his wife, he now felt like he was neglecting his daughter.

Bail had avoided the toddler since Breha's death, but today he dismissed her caregivers and let the girl's warm and carefree presence give him comfort.

Leia squirmed in Bail's lap until he released her and set her down on the floor. He just had a few letters to read and then his day was free. The child circled around his desk, entertaining herself while Bail came across a letter he almost missed.

"Sola Naberrie," he read aloud.

"Sola Nabee-bee," Leia chanted in response. "Sola Nabee-bee-bee-bee-bee… Daddy!"

"Yes, Leia," Bail replied.

"Look!" Leia hung on to the edge of the desk and lifted her feet off the ground, suspending herself in the air for a moment and giggling at her accomplishment.

"I see—wow! You're so strong!"

Bail's eyes fell back on the letter from Sola, Padme's sister.

_Leia's aunt, _he thought to himself.

The loss of his wife had surely heightened his interest in the search for Padme's stolen body that had been going on for three years now. In the first year, he had sent some of his own people to help in the cause and had donated funds to it as well. Then, in the following years, as Leia became a rambunctious toddler that kept himself and Breha on their toes every day, the fund kind of slipped his mind.

As far as the public knew, Padme's body was found a few months prior to its disappearance and laid to rest in a more secure mausoleum that was built for her during the search. Only the royal family of Naboo, Bail, and a few trustworthy leaders in the galaxy knew that she was still missing.

Bail scanned the letter from Sola. The typical condolences concerning his wife, well-wishes, the "if you shall ever need anything from us"…

_You've done more than we can ever repay you for, but we hope one day you will let us try._

_Thank you for everything,_

_Sola Naberrie_

Little did Sola know, her sister had already given Bail the world through his little Leia. It was he who owed a debt to the Naberrie family. And in that moment, he made a promise to himself that he would _never _stop looking until Padme Naberrie was found.

** III**

**11 BBY**

"You ready?"

"Almost!" replied an eight-year-old Leia Organa. She quickly bounced onto her bed and crossed her legs. "Alright, I'm ready!"

Leia's bedroom door clicked open. In walked a short woman with graying red hair and kindly green eyes. Inna Fotel—Leia's tutor.

"Hmm…" the woman contemplated, scanning the room. "Where could it be?"

"I'm not telling," said Leia with a cheeky grin.

It was part of her lessons, though it felt more like a game. Leia would hide her tutor's bracelet somewhere in the room, and Inna would one chance to guess where it was.

The girl watched the older woman probe each corner of the room with her eyes. When she thought her teacher was not looking, Leia shot a look at her top dresser drawer. But she got caught.

"Leia, dear…" Inna sighed. "You're not focusing, sweetheart. Don't think about where it is, or I'll know." She opened the drawer and reached her hand in, expecting to find the bracelet.

"Got you!" the princess exclaimed. She hopped off her bed and crossed the room to her window, where the bracelet was hiding behind the curtain. She held it up triumphantly.

Surprised, Inna just stared at the girl for a moment.

"I could have sworn…" her voice trailed off in bewilderment. "Good job!"

The little princess returned the bracelet to its rightful owner.

"It's not that hard," she shrugged. "I don't know why Daddy and Winter can never play it right."

Leia sat down at her desk and brushed aside various drawings and scribbles.

"Can we do history next?" the princess asked her tutor. But the drawings had caught Inna's eye.

"What's this?" she asked, picking up two from the top. In the first, a blonde boy stood at the center, with two big yellow circles above his head. In the second, a woman with long, dark hair was lying down in flowers.

"Dreams," Leia explained shortly, pulling her history book out from under the drawings. Her expression worried her teacher and the woman set a hand on the brunette's shoulder.

"Is something wrong, sweetheart?"

Leia bit her lip. She had been trying not to think about it. How almost everything she dreamt felt so real. Ever since her dream of Winter tripping on the stairs and spraining her wrist came true, the princess feared she herself was causing the creations of her unconscious mind to become reality. When she had the dream about Winter, she did not even remember it until her best friend was injured in real life. With her drawings, Leia tried to remember every dream. Maybe she could prevent them from occurring if she remembered.

"Leia?" Inna nudged the girl gently, kneeling beside her and taking her hands. "Listen. You are an extremely special little girl, okay? And I know you sometimes feel some things that you don't understand, but that's normal. That's why I'm here. I know about these feelings you get."

"Do you have dreams, too?" asked Leia in a small voice.

"I do," the woman replied. "And they can be scary. And Leia, these feelings we get, they have the power to help people. But they can also be kind of dangerous. You know why?"

Leia shook her head.

"Because people who have powers like us," Inna continued. "Some of them are bad. And just like I sometimes know where the bracelet is, sometimes they know where people like you and I are if they are close. You'll learn to sense when they are close, too. Now, we're strong. And one day we can fight them. But right now is the time to hide."

"Like the bracelet?"

"Yes, dear," the woman replied. "Like the bracelet. But we'll work on that some other time." Inna gently tucked a strand of hair behind Leia's ear and handed her back the pictures. "Keep these. One day—maybe tomorrow, or maybe years from now—these dreams of yours will make sense."

**IV**

_Leia squinted under the bright white lights at first, then the small room came into view. There was a woman lying on a table. Ringlets of dark hair much like Leia's framed her face, and her eyes fluttered open. She sighed dreamily and something compelled the eight-year-old to grasp the woman's hand._

_"It's going to be alright…" Leia heard herself say. Only then did she notice a boy. A familiar blonde boy in beige clothing, holding the woman's other hand. Though he was in the same room, it felt like he was in another world. Like two intersecting paths that were not meant to be crossed. His eyes fell nervously on her swollen stomach._

_"You're having a baby?" asked the boy. The woman, who focused on neither child in particular, lurched forward in pain._

_"Ahhh!" she cried. Leia watched her knuckles turn white as the pregnant woman squeezed her hand hard. "No…" the woman panted. "No, no, no, NO, NO! Not like this! I already—AH!"_

_The woman lurched forward, sending the children forward as well. Both stumbled to the ground on either side of the medical bed, and as they threw their hands back to catch themselves, the boy's hand fell on top of Leia's._

_The two froze. For the first time, they locked eyes. _

_"Let me go…please, let me go…" they heard the woman say. "I'm done…let me go…"_

_And then bright blue bolts surged down her legs. She screamed as the lightening traveled up the rest of her body, never ceasing like a single strike would but instead remaining a constant surge. _

_The lightening engulfed the room and the smell of burnt flesh seemed to wrap a cord around Leia's neck. _

_The woman's cries._

_The boy's cries._

_Leia's own cries, sounding miles away._

_And…another's…?_

**V**

Leia's bedroom slowly faded into view as she awoke. But no matter how many times she blinked herself into heavier consciousness, she could still hear the crying. It sounded like it was coming from outside.

Leia draped her legs over her bed and placed her feet on the ground. She crossed to the locked balcony door, where she could still hear the crying. She squinted at the courtyard, looking for the source of the noise.

The eight-year-old quickly ran to her dresser, opened a drawer and pulled out one of her hairpins to unlock the balcony door. Within seconds she had it open and leaned over the fence, searching the courtyard again. She could still hear the crying. It sounded like a baby.

Then she noticed a figure entering the courtyard with a bundle in his arms as the cries grew closer. She soon recognized the head of dark hair and the long blue robe.

"Daddy!" she whispered to herself. He had been away on business for what seemed to her like forever. Quickly Leia closed and locked the balcony door, then bolted out of her room. She went down the dark hallway and sat behind the railing at the top of the stairs just as her father walked in. She could now see that the bundle in his arms was a wailing baby. Leia wondered whether she would get in trouble if she ran to greet him.

Inna met him in the foyer.

"Bail, why did you bring her here? You'll wake Leia!"

"Come into the living room," Bail requested, still trying to comfort the child in his arms. The frightened infant's howling began to quiet down, as if it was relieved to be brought indoors.

Once they were out of sight, Leia tip-toed down the spiral staircase, carefully stepping over each step that creaked.

"Bail, this wasn't supposed to happen until two weeks from now," Inna said in a low voice.

Leia made it down the stairs and crouched out of sight in a corner just outside the living room, listening closely.

"There was a…disturbance," Bail explained. "We had to leave. I'll explain further at a later time, but we have to change the plan. You won't be here. I'm sending you to Dantooine with her. There's a Czerka G-Wing Light Shuttle waiting for you. There's a cottage—"

"What?! Bail—"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it was absolutely necessary," Bail said seriously. "Life or death."

Inna paused.

"For who?"

"For her."

Leia craned her head to get a peek at the couch where father and tutor sat. Bail, still holding the child with one hand, placed his other on top of Inna's.

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," he sighed.

"I thought we had time…"

"I know… I did, too."

Inna bowed her head, looking at Bail's hand on top of her own. She closed her eyes. Inhaled sharply, then let out a long exhale.

"Just let me say goodbye to Leia."

"NO!" Leia cried out. Now she didn't care if they saw her. The girl raced into her tutor's arms and hugged her around the neck. "Please don't go! Please! I'll do all my chores, all my lessons, I'll—"

"Hush, my dear, it's alright," Inna whispered, pulling the small child into her lap. The baby began to cry again.

The eight-year-old princess shot a resentful glare at the child in her father's arms. She didn't understand the situation, but from what she had observed she felt this baby was replacing her and taking her beloved tutor. So why did she feel the way she did, looking at the newborn's little face?

"Who is she?" queried Leia in a tiny voice. She inched out of her tutor's lap to sit between Inna and her father, getting a closer look at the baby.

"She's…" Bail trailed off, and his daughter watched him exchange glances with Inna. "Her name is Tess. She is going to live with Inna from now on."

"Why?"

"Because she needs someone to protect her," Bail clarified.

Tufts of curly dark hair sprouted from the baby's head, and her wide tear-puffed eyes stared intently at the older child. A tiny hand found its way out of the swaddled blanket around it and Leia, without thinking, reached out to take it into her own. Bail gently placed the newborn baby in her arms.

The young princess did not move a muscle in fear of damaging the fragile bundle. But this bundle—she trusted Leia instantly, settling in the makeshift cradle of the eight-year-old's lap and looking contentedly up into her identical brown eyes. And suddenly—in that moment—all Leia wanted to do for the rest of her life was to earn that trust.

"I could protect her."

Bail, touched by his daughter's sincerity, kissed the top of the child's head.

"Little girls shouldn't have to worry about that," he insisted.

"I will take good care of her," promised Inna.

As Leia looked at her tutor's teary green eyes, she remembered that this meant Inna had to leave. Sensing the two needed a moment for farewells, Bail relieved his daughter of the newborn. The princess stifled the approaching tears as long as she could.

"Will I ever see you again?"

"I don't know," Inna told her honestly.

"That's not a yes."

"No…it isn't."

Leia wiped away tears with the sleeve of her nightgown.

"I don't want you to go."

Inna reached out and Leia fell into her arms, letting the woman rock her back and forth like she had done many a time when the princess was not much bigger than baby Tess.

"Shh…there's no need for tears…" Inna assured the girl, though she couldn't help shedding a few herself. "You always find the bracelet, what makes you think you can't find me if you need me someday?"

For several minutes Inna let the eight-year-old cry, but finally it came time for her to take the baby.

Still so confused but without the proper questions to ask, Leia clung to her father and listened to the shuttle outside take off.


	3. The Child

_**Daughter of a Dead Woman:**_

**_Book 1: Guardians of the Mystery_**

* * *

><p><strong>Dantooine<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>I<strong>

**0 BBY**

At the endpoint of Myto's Arrow, almost fifty thousand light years away from the Core, a terrestrial planet called Dantooine nested amongst the Outer Rim territories. One of its larger continents held four major geographical regions—the mountainous Rielig Steppes in the southeast, the smaller Darjani Plains to the west of them, the vast Arissi Plains in the northwest, and the grassland Fields of Banir in the northeast.

The Fields of Banir—though remote and sparsely populated—housed expansive history, including the ruins of an ancient Jedi temple. Nearly four thousand years ago, the land was tread upon by some of the most powerful Jedi. Among them, Vodo-Siosk Baas, Vrook Lamar, Dorak, Zhar, Vandar Tokare, Kavar, Zez-Kai Ell, and so many more. Jedi Masters, Knights, and those who would never reach their potential smothered by the malevolent Darth Malak a year before the fall of the Sith Empire. The energy was palpable to anyone with the sensitivity to feel the lost souls still caught in the temple's ruins, though that mystical sensitivity was thought to be extinct since the Great Jedi Purge.

Now Dantooine was home to a few human families sporadically placed here and there. Little clusters of cottages and farms and homesteads spread out among the flatter lands, predominantly families whose history on the planet dated back generations—those who were born and raised there, as were their parents and their parents' parents. It was a community somewhat blind to the progression of the rest of the galaxy, leaning heavily on tradition.

A small enclosure separated the inhabited section of the Fields of Banir from the open land. There, various types of skilled workers would set up displays of their goods for sale. Vegetables, meats, woven baskets, pottery, clothing—the simple necessities were all available there for an accumulation of people that did not require much to live happy, healthy lives. The area became known as the Blba Market, named after the humongous Blba tree that stood in its very center. Its yellow-green leaves served as a beacon of the market's location. However, today, it also became the perfect retreat for a little girl called Tess Naberrie to slip away from the watchful eye of her guardian.

At eleven years old, Tess Naberrie was an energetic spitfire of a child. Her shoulder-length, caf-colored hair was always pulled back into two tousled braids at the insistence of her guardian. They started the day perfect before half of the curls plotted their escape and freed themselves all around her head by sunset. Each afternoon running about the Fields of Banir dashed yet another freckle on the child's nose. Her eyes—probably her most striking feature—were an expressive dark brown, large and innocent, and with her hair a drastic but charming contrast against a fair complexion.

"Tess!" came a voice that nearly startled the girl out of the tree. "Tess, help me up!" It was her best friend, Nathen Laethry. Tess reached her hand down to the boy with the white-blond hair.

"Hurry!" Tess ordered. "Before your mom sees you!"

Nathen successfully joined his friend in the tree, and then the two scooted their way outwards on a thick branch until they could look over a good portion of the market, perched over the bustling shoppers.

Nathen groaned under the weight of his pack, pulling it off his shoulders and into his lap.

"Don't be such a baby," Tess teased.

"It's heavy!" the boy whined. "We got a lot this time!" He opened the pack and showed her that it was filled to the brim with large acorns.

"Okay, you know the drill," Tess told Nathen. She pulled out her slingshots from the waistband of her pants and handed one to her friend. "Chest or back, one point. Arms or legs, three points. Head, five points. If you get caught, you lose all points and it's game over."

Nathen readied his slingshot with a toothy grin.

"Got it."

And the game was on.

**II**

Inna Fotel passed table after table of kibla greens. It seemed to be the popular vegetable to harvest on Dantooine this year, but there was no point in buying since Tess refused to eat them. The woman squinted through aging green eyes at some plump, fresh-looking yot beans.

"Looking for anything in particular?" asked the seller behind the vegetables, noticing her dissatisfaction.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Inna told him. "Tritacale, if you have it?"

"I'm afraid not," the vender admitted. "But I can assure you that our kibla is the best in the Fields." He picked up a bundle of greens to present her with an expedient smile. Inna politely shook her head and continued browsing the Blba Market. It wasn't until she reconsidered the yot beans for a soup of some sort that she realized Tess was no longer trailing behind her.

Then she caught a glimpse of the Blba tree in the distance, with a dark-haired child hanging upside-down from a branch, reaching for the helmet of a passing stormtrooper.

"Kriff…"

**III**

It took every ounce of self-restraint in Tess' little body to keep from giggling as Nathen just stared at her, his mouth agape. She mouthed 'one hundred points' to her friend. She almost had a grip on the stormtrooper's helmet. Just one…more…inch…

_Crack!_

Suddenly, the branch beneath her hand snapped under her weight, bringing it down on top of the soldier's head. Tess fell onto a branch directly below the first one, hugging it tight to keep herself from tumbling to the ground.

The stormtrooper cursed and grabbed for the eleven-year-old's arms instinctively, which dragged Tess out of the tree and onto the ground. Only then did Tess realize the stupidity of her plan, frozen on the dirt ground with the wind completely knocked out of her. Staring up into the coal-black triangles where the stormtrooper's eyes should have been. The small crowd around them released a collective gasp as the trooper pulled out his blaster.

Once Tess could manage speech, the first word out of her mouth was her guardian's name in a fearful cry. Just as soon as it left her mouth, Inna was there, filling the space between the stormtrooper and the child.

"How dare you point a blaster at a child!" Inna boomed lividly.

As if recovering from the initial shock of Tess' joke and acknowledging the lack of threat she posed, the stormtrooper holstered his blaster.

"You are responsible for this child?" questioned the stormtrooper.

"I am," Inna confirmed. Tess finally caught her breath and pulled herself to her feet, seeking protection behind her guardian. The redheaded woman kept her eyes locked on the two makeshift eyes of the stormtrooper's helmet—the two black triangles that instilled fear in the heart of every sector. Inna, however, stood unwavering. "I am, indeed, responsible for the child you just threatened with a lethal weapon. But she is none of your concern anymore."

Peeking around her guardian, Tess watched the stormtrooper stand there in silence, almost as if he was confused. Though it was impossible to tell through the mask.

"She…she is…" the trooper stammered. Then he straightened his posture. "I need to see some identification."

"You have already seen it," Inna threw back quickly. Tess watched with confusion as Inna waved her hand in the air.

"I've already seen it," the trooper repeated back robotically.

"We are free to go."

"You are free to go."


	4. From the Ashes of this War

**Daughter of a Dead Woman**

**Book I: Guardians of the Mystery**

* * *

><p><strong>I<strong>

Inna Fotel watched with just a half-grin of amusement as the children illustrated the day's occurrences at the Blba Market.

"And then Tess tackled him from the tree!" Nathen exclaimed, demonstrating his perception of the scene with his silverware. His fork dove down from over his head to attack his spoon. "_Wham_!"

"And then Inny came out of nowhere!" Tess used her own fork to portray Inna, knocking the stormtrooper spoon into her friend's driblis cobbler. "For the Alliance!"

"You rebel scum…"

Before the spoon could counter-attack, Nathen's mother gently guided her son's hands back down to rest at either side of his plate. Inna gave Tess a small warning look and the girl's cheeks blushed bright red, realizing that she had forgotten her table manners. Nathen's younger brother Jisten and sister Lorr—the only audience members who were enjoying the show—whined in disappointment. Their father Sumn Laethry was the least amused, shooting his oldest son a scolding glare.

"I never knew that you were so into politics, Inna," Eniss Laethry chuckled nervously.

"I'm sorry?" Inna wiped her mouth with her napkin and shielded her discomfort. "Oh…Tess was exaggerating, I assure you. I merely informed the man that she was my responsibility and he let us go on our way."

"Man…" Sumn scoffed. "Is that what you call those white suits? Those clones are the complete opposite of men. Mindless, destructive filth. Each one more of a menace than the next."

"Sumn, there's no need for that," Eniss hushed her husband. "Nothing good will come of it." She shook her head gently. "I have just as much distaste for the Empire as anyone, but we are a remote planet and they hardly knew we even existed until the rebels arrived with their base, bringing the war to our home. At least they are long gone now, gods be good."

Inna was never one to have trouble thinking before she spoke, but Eniss' comment had her questioning her self-restraint. It was that exact 'not in my backyard' attitude that kept the rebel numbers so low—people completely in favor of the Old Republic's return but unwilling to fight for it. Expecting the youth of the galaxy to bore of their conventional lives and do it for them. To _die _for them. And Sumn was no better with his blind loathing—opposing the pawns and not the politics just because their presence was inconvenient. Regardless of the destruction they caused, harboring a deep, true hatred of every stormtrooper was a waste of emotion in Inna's eyes. One does not blame a droid for only performing the task they were programmed—they blame the programmer.

"Yes, gods be good," Inna finally responded. The dinner continued without further discussion.

**II**

"Nathen doesn't like Lorr, but I think she's cute," Tess said of her best friend's three-year-old sister. Her words with garbled with a mouthful of toothpaste. "I know I can't have a real little sister since I'm an orphan, but it would be fun if you had a baby. Or even if you just looked after another little girl, like you look after me. Or boy. I'm sure there are a lot of kids that need a guardian." She paused, taking a moment to spit into the sink. "Or maybe we could just get a pet?"

Inna smiled slightly as she folded Tess' sheets down. The girl continued her nightly bathroom ranting, but it was no longer comprehensible with her toothbrush back in her mouth. Coming up behind the young brunette, her guardian began to gently brush out the dark curls, pausing only for a moment to let Tess spit into the sink again.

The eleven-year-old caught Inna's eyes staring at her through the mirror in front of them.

"What?" asked Tess.

_You look like your mother._

"You're just so pretty," Inna sighed, cloaking her initial thought. She set the hairbrush down on the bathroom counter and guided Tess into the bedroom. "You should have seen me at your age—skinny, quirky little redhead. And I hardly ever said a word. Nothing like you. Hop into bed, now."

The girl compliantly dug herself under the covers and pulled them up to her chin, grinning mischievously. Inna narrowed her eyes at her, wondering what she was up to. Then Tess pulled two fists out from under the covers and held them out.

"Pick a hand," she instructed.

Inna tapped the left.

"Nope!" Tess giggled, opening the right hand to show Inna's bracelet.

"You little sneak!" Inna exclaimed. "How did you manage to snatch that?"

"Magic!" the girl insisted. She handed the bracelet back to her guardian, but Inna unhooked the clasp and gestured for Tess' hand.

"Here," Inna told her. "You can wear it just for tonight." She fastened the bracelet snuggly onto her wrist, then grabbed Tess' ankles and slid her lower on the bed so that she was lying down again. "But only if you go right to sleep."

The eleven-year-old rolled onto her side and started turning her bracelet around her wrist, pulling each white and blue bead gently along the string. Her loose shoulder-length curls fell over her face, hiding half of her pensive expression.

Inna tucked a lock of the girl's hair behind her ear.

"What is it, love?"

"I've been thinking about the stormtrooper today," she shared. "And what Nathen's parents were saying at dinner. And what I hear people say about Uncle Bail. And everything…" She trailed off.

Inna could see the wheels turning in Tess' head, contemplating the parallels of today's world that the woman had tried her best to keep her from as long as possible. The galaxy's people and politics alike twisted in an out of a long, dark road of corruption. With every passing day, one more citizen's voice was lost as if to fuel the Empire's power. What was she supposed to tell Tess? That the world she lived in was hanging on by a single thread of hope and that Emperor Palpatine himself was waiting below with his army of stormtroopers to catch it? That the government and its leaders should be respected unconditionally lest she end up like so many fallen rebels? That she would be better off living her life in blissful ignorance of the world? Was she too young to be having this conversation, or should Inna have had it with her years ago?

Tess' dark eyes watched her guardian's with a child's full trust, the sort of look that reminded a parent that whatever they said to this little person would help mold the shape of not only her, but her entire generation.

"How do I know what's good and what's bad?"

And there was the question. The question that really had no answer.

_"__Naura..." A friend's voice. "Naura… I'm so sorry…"_

_A redheaded woman so long forgotten, grasping the limp form of a teenage girl amongst a sea of still children on the ground._

_Sobs that silenced the Jedi Masters around her._

_The touch of a small green hand on her shoulder._

_"__Past the point of redemption," said the green Master. "Anakin has fallen."_

"Inny?" whispered Tess.

"Just a moment," offered her guardian. Inna knelt down at the side of the bed, pulling out a small stack of Tess' storybooks. Her finger traced the outline of a princess on the top one, a prince flying towards her tower on a krayt dragon to come rescue her. To save the day. To defeat the villain, and to be a hero.

"If you're going to tell me a story," Tess interrupted. "Tell the one about Revan and Darth Malak."

"I'm not going to tell you a story," Inna clarified, handing the girl her books. Tess found one about the adventures of Bastilla Shan and opened up to the first page to look at the pictures.

"Everything you hear about Jedi on the HoloNet says they're evil…" Tess thought aloud. "But in all the stories, they are heroes."

The girl looked up at her guardian, again craving a response that would clarify the moral standings that she should accept as universal truth. If only it were that simple. Inna sighed, gently turning the book's pages.

"You read about the Jedi, and everything is either light or dark," Inna began. She slowly closed Tess' book to receive the girl's full attention. "I want you to know that the galaxy doesn't live by those rules. Heroes can kill just as easily as they can save. Villains can love as fiercely as their hatred."

_Sweat dripping from the woman's brow and soaking her brown curls. A medical droid lifting the blotchy purple infant from between her legs and holding it up for her to see._

_A scrunched newborn face, squinting under the light._

_"__Luke."_

_Screaming. Screaming. Screaming._

_Another child, eyes wide and alert as she met her mother._

_"__Leia."_

_Fragile. Innocent. Pure._

_How could she have wished to destroy them just because they were his?_

Inna continued.

"For a long time, I thought that good was good, and evil was evil. But I've seen good turn its course to further its own agenda. I've seen evil create…the most beautiful thing in the world." Inna smiled gently at the little girl who she loved more than anything else in the galaxy, bringing a hand under her cheek.

"There is no good. There is no evil. There is just you. You and the world you want to see rising up from the ashes of this war."

**III**

Once Tess was fast asleep, Inna slipped a pasmin cloak over her shoulders and stepped outside into Dantooine's night air. The wind whipped ribbons of her hair around her face, tickling her cheeks. Strands of gray blew past her eyes, reminding her just how many years she had pulled herself through this life. Making her wonder how much longer it would last.

She was fifty-three years old, but the crinkles at the corners of her eyes suggested otherwise. Inna had never been exceptionally attractive, though until about twenty years ago, she had always tried to be. She wasn't ugly, but she wasn't beautiful. Not old, but far away from youth. She was ordinary and always had been. 'Special' was a foreign word, and tasted sour and unfamiliar on her tongue. Her younger self had grown to resent the people who were referred to as so, and the word became an insult more than a compliment in her mind.

Only her girls had ever made her feel special.

Leia.

Tess.

And the very first one. The one whose name she wouldn't even let herself think anymore.

But something was fast approaching. She could feel it swimming up her veins as everything inside of her was recruiting an internal army to fight. She had been suppressing a throbbing anxiety for over a week now. Watching just a little more closely. Holding Tess just a tad tighter at her side. Checking the locks on the doors just one more time. Until tonight.

Tonight she intentionally looked away. Left Tess alone. Unlocked the front door. Dared danger to take its form.

She was ready.


End file.
